


Quick Ignition

by greekowl87



Series: Tumblr Prompts [36]
Category: The X-Files
Genre: Angst, F/M, MSR, diana!angsts, season 6 angsts, smutlite
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-21
Updated: 2020-01-21
Packaged: 2021-02-27 05:20:48
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,272
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22351723
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/greekowl87/pseuds/greekowl87
Summary: Another ficlet ome good old fashioned season 6 angsts involving Mulder and Scully with Diana Fowley at the center of it.
Relationships: Fox Mulder/Dana Scully
Series: Tumblr Prompts [36]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/822135
Comments: 2
Kudos: 39





	Quick Ignition

**Author's Note:**

> @contrivedcoincidences6 Tumblr prompt request: “I can’t believe you did this, how could you?” / “This, us, was a fucking mistake and I should have known the second things went further than planned.”
> 
> I love me some good, old-fashioned angsts. Diana fueled angsts are my bread and butter so I thought I would try my hand at it. Again. So set around ‘Two Sons.’ I suck at smut so sorry if it sounds dumb :( And I apologize for it sound rushed. No beta. I just wanted to get this idea out while it was in my head.

On the bottom of the world in winter sunlight, Mulder gambled and won the thousand to one odds. He had found Scully in the maze of an alien ship, given her the vaccine, and somehow, they still escaped with their lives. Except, when they arrived back in D.C., they still didn’t have their old office back. The events in Dallas resulted in them being relegated to the bullpen where they were stuck doing background checks.

Mulder was certain, that despite the dire situation, Scully would have been transferred to Quantico either by the higher-ups or of her own accord. But each day he dragged himself to the office, she was sitting right behind him in the bullpen performing endless background checks. And things remained glacial between them; cold and frigid and unlikely to change anytime soon.

But he sensed it; they both did. They wanted to change. Whatever was left unspoken in the hallway of his Alexandria apartment before that blasted bee ruined everything hung in the air between them. You don’t go around professing that the person is their one and five billion without meaning it. But the tension between was palpable.

This Monday was no different.

Scully was already at her desk that morning when Mulder came in. He smiled and offered her a paper bag proudly. “What is that?” She arched her eyebrow. “A peace offering?”

“Breakfast. I stopped by the bakery you like so much in Old Town and picked it up on my way in.”

She took it cautiously. “What do you want?”

“What makes you say that?”

“No catch.” 

She took the offered pastry wearily. “Thank you, Mulder.”

“I actually wanted to see if you wanted to come over tonight,” he said slowly.

“Why?”

Mulder sat in his chair and choose his next words carefully. “No reason. Maybe watch a movie, enjoy a six-pack of Shiner Bock…discuss what I told you in the hallway.” He looked down at his hands. “I want there to be an us,” he finished.

“Mulder, not here,” she whispered sharply. She averted her gaze to focus on her computer.

“Scully, come on. We both can’t dance around what happened.”

Mulder watched her body language as she sighed and barely nodded. “Tonight. Seven. I’ll be there.”

He recognized the need for her control; if she at least came to his place, she could also choose to escape back to her Georgetown apartment if she wanted. He would take it. “Sounds great. I could order takeout? Italian?”

“Just pizza, Mulder,” she whispered. “Pizza and beer.”

He smiled and turned his chair around. Victory.

*****

The morning progressed agonizingly. Neither Mulder nor Scully was able to break away from the phone and the endless background checks. By eleven Mulder wrote, ‘I’m going to get something from the vending machine. Want your usual?,’ on a post-it note. Scully nodded shortly and mouthed ‘Thank you.’ “No, ma’am. I would never insinuate that. It’s a regular question,” she said softly.

Mulder smiled. A trained medical doctor who could easily leave the FBI and pursue a career in medicine choose to stay and with him no less. She really was his one and five billion. He got up and padded his back pocket for his wallet. Scully slammed the phone down angrily. “Everything okay?”

“I don’t remember my own background checks being so nasty,” she told him. “The woman basically called me a bitch and hung up on me!”

“Well, forget about it. Do you want a Butterfinger instead of the M&Ms?”

“No. I get that stuck in my teeth. Milky Way?”

“You got it,” he laughed. “Be back.”

“Thank you, Mulder.”

He was truly blessed with her. As he made his way to the vending machine, debating what to get for himself, a soft voice called, “Fox!”

He stopped dead in his tracks. No one called him that except one: Diana. He turned and gave a feeble smile. “Hi, Diana.”

“What are doing down here?”

Mulder awkwardly gestured to the vending machine. “Grabbing something to eat for Scully and me. Doing those background checks is hard work.”

Something changed in her demeanor. Diana stood taller, straightening her back so that her chest (and breasts) jutted out slightly. Mulder took a step back automatically, unused to someone else sharing his space beside Scully. “Well, if you are free today, I was wondering if you wanted to catch up over your lunch break down in the cafeteria today?”

Mulder was quiet for a second briefly thinking about Scully. He wasn’t stupid; he knew there was some tension between his partner and ex-wife. But Diana could be trusted. She had been there at the beginning. He understood that. Scully’s suspicion was in the wrong place. “Um, give me fifteen minutes and I’ll meet you there.”

Diana smiled and squeezed his arm affectionately. “See you in fifteen.”

Mulder quickly got his wallet and bought Scully’s candy bar. He walked back to his desk and deposited the candy bar on her desk and grabbed his jacket. She arched an eyebrow in surprise and put her hand over the mouthpiece of the phone. “Where are you going?”

“Ran into an old friend that is only here for a day. Gonna have lunch with them.” One little white lie couldn’t hurt. “I’ll be back at one. Don’t worry, we’re still on for tonight.”

“Mushrooms and green peppers?”

“And pineapple for me.”

She wrinkled her nose with a smile. “Have fun.”

God, Scully could torture him with her little quirks.

*****

Despite the Milky Way Mulder had gifted her at 11 that morning, by noon, Scully’s stomach was grumbling. She eyed the clock as the bigger hand hovered at 12:02. She was entitled to her lunch break and didn’t have to worry about it since she no longer worked out in the field. Scully typed a few quick things out before she grabbed her card and headed down to the Hoover’s employee cafeteria. 

Her stomach continued to grumble and turn as she took the elevator to the first floor. Scully decided against her yogurt and bee pollen and wondered what healthy options she had. She checked the menu and decided on a Cobb salad before she proceeded into the line to get her lunch. Her mind was fluttering around the meeting with Mulder that evening. Were they going to finish that conversation? Her blood rushed with excitement.

As Scully went through the motions to purchase her Cobb salad, she clenched her lunch tray when she saw Mulder laughing with Diana.

Diana.

Scully prided herself in not trying to cast judgment, blame her Catholic upbringing. But she couldn’t help it. It was something about Diana that crawled under her skin. Then she saw Mulder laughing, grasping her hand as she leaned against his shoulder laughing too. Then there was the hand holding. What did it for her was the chaste kiss on the cheek that Diana did and Mulder didn’t stop it. Her blood crawled, growing icey. Suddenly, Scully’s appetite was lost and she dumped the contents of her lost lunch in the trash can wastefully. Scully wondered if she was dumping her lunch or her baggage regarding her potential relationship with Mulder.

*****

Mulder smiled at Scully as he came back from lunch. “Hey, Scully,” he greeted.

“Mulder.”

It was the change in her tone that caught him off guard. “Everything okay?”

“I’m fine.”

“Sure?”

“Peachy, Mulder.” She looked up from her work. “I can’t make it tonight. My mom called. I’ll be in Bethesda tonight.”

Mulder did a double-take. “What about our plans?”

Scully didn’t look at him as she replied, “Maybe next time.”

Mulder sat down at his desk. What had gotten into her? “What about our plans?”

“I can’t tonight, Mulder. Maybe next time.”

Mulder frowned as she avoided him completely for the rest of the at.

*****

Scully’s apartment was her refuge. It was her domicile, her kingdom; it was all in her control. As soon as five o’clock hit, Scully quickly left and took the Metro back home to her apartment leaving a puzzled Mulder behind. As soon as she locked her door that evening, she dropped her briefcase by the door, kicked off her heels, and immediately went to their bedroom, changed into black leggings and an FBI gray sweatshirt and collapsed on her overstuffed couch and flipped it to HGTV. Let her be dissolved in fixing and flipping houses rather than fixing her relationship with Mulder.

*****

Mulder knew she took the Metro that day but instead of going straight home, he sat in his car, watching her apartment building before the light in her living room turned on. He downed a miniature he had gotten at a Virginia ABC store. Liquid courage. He took a deep breath, locked his car, and marched to her apartment door.

She pulled it open before he could knock.

“I saw your car,” she answered. She stood aside so he could enter. “What is it that you want?”

“I thought we had a date tonight.”

“We had no date,” she answered cooly.

Mulder scoffed accusingly. “I can’t believe you did this, how could you?”

“What on Earth are you talking about?”

She went to her fridge and dug out a bottle of white wine.

“So my mere presence drives you to drink?” He snapped.

“You’re being selfish. No. What I saw at lunch did it for me.”

Oh, Scully was ready to scorch and burn everything between them. “Lunch?”

“Diana.” She cast her typical questioning left eyebrow before pouring her own glass. “Want some?”

“Sure you won’t burn it?”

“Quit being an asshole.”

She pulled down a second glass and poured some wine into it as well. “I’m not.”

“You are.”

Mulder took the full glass wearily as sipped the pinot grigio. “You aren’t helping.”

“I’m mad.” She gestured between the glasses. “This doesn’t help but at this point, I’m sick of your shit and backtracking.”

“What the fuck, Scully,” he asked.

Mulder was still standing in the doorway with a glass of wine. He groaned and set it aside. He stormed toward her couch as she sat down and crossed her legs. Scully murmured, “What the fuck indeed.”

“What is that supposed to mean?”

She sighed and pinched her brow. “This, us, was a fucking mistake and I should have known the second things went further than planned.”

“What further things?”

“Beer? Talking? The hallway?”

“You aren’t making sense.”

Scully stared at him, narrowed her eyes and huffed. “You fucking kissed her, Mulder. Don’t give me bullshit lines that I’m your one and five billion when you’re off kissing other women.” She set down the glass of wine on the table with a thud. “If you want there to be an us, Mulder then come clean with me.” She stood up. Even without her heels, she was a giant. “I will fight for us but I won’t do it unless you’re all in too.”

Mulder eyed the glass of wine enticingly. “Diana is my ex-wife.”

“She’s your what?”

Fuck it. He downed the wine in one gulp. It numbed him briefly against Scully’s verbal assault.

“And you didn’t think that was important to mention?”

“Scully…”

She was on her feet now, pacing like a shark. “Don’t. Mulder, I’m pissed. You’re dragging me along for months, pretending that I’m the only thing that matters and then boom, out to lunch with your ex.”

Mulder found himself floundering, stuck in the moment. “What do you want me to do?”

“I want you to be honest with me, Mulder. What happened to trust no one???”

“I trust you,” he defended.

“Trusted. Past tense,” she shouted. 

Mulder was stunned. “Scully…”

“There is no us!” She continued. “You know I don’t trust her. I don’t like her but go around strutting with her.”

“Scully, she’s my ex-wife. She was there when I got the x-files.”

“And I was just assigned.” She scoffed. “I get it, Mulder. Loud and clear. You can leave.”

“I’m not leaving, Scully.”

“Mulder, leave. Please.”

“I’m not.” In frustration, Mulder stormed across her living room and grabbed her. He tried to use all his expertise to put his feeling into his body language. A kiss. They were both breathless. “I’m not leaving, Scully. There’s you and you only.”

Scully was dumbstruck. The power of their kiss paralyzed her. “How can I believe you?”

What followed was a hurricane of clothes being removed and six years of tensions being resolved. On her overstuffed couch with all the lights on, in Georgetown, of all places, The tv was playing something that seemed irrelevant to what had just perspired. Mulder coiled around her bare body and pulled her afghan closer. “I got to admit.” He kissed the back of her ear soothingly. “Your couch might be more comfortable than mine.”

“Hmm…” she hummed.

From literally tearing out their throats to post-coitus, neither could complain. “You know, I meant what I said in that hallway, Scully.”

She turned to face him and gripped him tightly. He felt himself tighten with pleasure (or was it fear?). “Say it.”

“Diana is the past. We’re the future.”

“Again.”

“Diana is the past. We’re the future.”

After a moment, Scully released him. He nuzzled her hair. “Satisfied?”

“I will be once we go to bed. I hate sleeping on this couch.”

“Even with the company?”

“The bed is better with the company.”

“Where does this leave us?”

“To be determined?”

“Better than a no.”

For the moment, all anger was forgotten and they could move forward, even if for a moment into her bedroom. And of course, the pizza was forgotten.


End file.
